We have just uploaded our new interview with Dirk Maggs, the man behind the upcoming Alien: Out of the Shadows audio dramatization. As part of 20th Century Fox’s extensive Alien Day celebrations, an audio dramatization of Titan Book’s and Tim Lebbon’s novel Alien: Out of the Shadows was announced. The man behind the project?
None other than Dirk Maggs, the man to bring to life the final installations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio show. Over his illustrious career he worked on many notable projects with many big name actors including the likes to Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy.
“AvPGalaxy – Can you tell us a little about how the idea of doing an audio dramatization of Tim Lebbon’s novel came around?
Dirk Maggs – It’s funny because in 1996 when I did a Fox movie/BBC Radio crossover called ‘Independence Day UK’, Fox were so pleased with the result that they asked if I would be interested in making an Alien audio production in advance of the release of ‘Alien Resurrection’. I wrote a treatment which they liked very much but sadly the rights position was not resolvable so it never happened. Flash forward nearly 20 years and Audible got in touch, asking f I’d like to adapt and produce an epic audio drama based on Tim Lebbon’s book. I said yes at once.”
Dirk Maggs is also responsible for the audio adaptations of the last episodes of The Hitckhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio show and has worked alongside numerous well known actors and writers.
Dirk talks about how he became involved in the production, the role that Alien: Isolation played in its making and about the amazing cast behind Alien: Out of the Shadows.
Make sure you check out the entire interview. You can also read our previous interviews in the Interviews section. I’d like to thank Dirk once again for taking the time to answer our questions. Alien: Out of the Shadows is available to download and listen to tomorrow.
Another review of the audio dramatization.
This was my big issue with it. I quite liked the original stuff, but awkwardly working Ripley into it almost killed it for me. I could see the mind-wipe finale coming a mile off and was groaning pretty hard. It's a shame because if Fox hadn't have insisted on that - maybe just include Ash in some antagonistic way without Ripley - it could've been a lot better. The whole novel trilogy was like that - great ideas often spoiled by dumb ones.
Ah yes, the poochoids. I completely forgot about them!
Ah I was misremembering, yeah that's not so bad.
I wouldn't really say humanoid, they got four legs and two arms and are really super tall.
Other than that the story has been okay, the description of humanoid aliens with dog heads feels pretty goofy too.
But hey to each their own, I'll try and wait until I've finished it to pass final judgement.
I'm about 3/4 of the way through the audio drama and I'm just not feeling the love. I think the drama is very well done but i'm not really caring for the story much at all.
PS. No matter what, Cameron's volcanism still holds true... It's just a question of which cause is responsible for shutting down the beacon...
As SM says, the beacon's fate was never addressed in the films (beyond the fact it obviously got switched off at some point, because no one's hearing it in Aliens), so the game had free reign to decide how exactly that happened.
It doesn't matter if it happened in a comic, because in the film Dallas obviously never goes near it.
I predict that she'll come, and she'll give, without takin'.
I'll show myself out...
Defiance takes place just after Isolation, but the Amanda flashback is before Isolation. And that seems to be a bit of a narrow definition of 'significance'.
I honestly struggle to pick a favourite from the trilogy. They all had stuff I really liked, and all had glaring faults.
I really wish it had been the Marshalls too. That would have worked perfectly. I was very fond of the whole frontiersman aspect of the novel. I thought they was really well portrayed.
True enough. I liked all the primary and secondary characters though. I think my fondness for it came primarily from how much I thought it felt like the older novels.
Sea of Sorrows had too many characters - so many that even James Moore lost track of them.
Really? Mine would probably be Sea of Sorrows but I think because it evoked such a strong feeling of the old EU in me. Why River of Pain? Don't get me wrong, I liked them all (solid 7s for me) but I just couldn't get over the Colonial Marines.
There's just a couple of Ripley scenes taken from the movie and added in the novel like the briefing from Aliens where she explains why she blew up the Nostromo to the Company and then some bits where Burke and Gorman arrive to her apartment I think. But Ripley herself plays no part in the actual events of the novel.
I was very sceptical about A:I, but overall they made it work really well.
Out of the Shadows was way better than it had a right to be considering the premise. River of Pain, despite some continuity glitches, was my favourite of the initial three novels.
PS. On the subject of "forced inclusion" I only really felt that about Hicks in A:CM. I was skeptical about A:I and Amanda Ripley at first, but that turned out very natural and pleasant. I was a little skeptical about out of the shadows too, and as it turns out I actually liked how they went about that too. I'm currently skeptical over river of pain, but I'll keep an open mind until I get around to reading it!
I would suggest trying the rest of the series out (Sea of Sorrows, River of Pain and then onto The Rage Wars). Perhaps pick up the original Out of the Shadows and go from there!
Yeah, that was one of the complaints when the original came out. I'd never noticed until it was pointed out.
I would say River of Pain was not really part of the trilogy. It's a prequel to Aliens. I think all 3 books were trying to set up loose threads that a subsequent author could spin into a yarn from. River of Pain actually bugged me a bit ultimately. The loose thread is that a little girl and a colonial marine escaped from Hadley's Hope. To me that is too patronizing. It was done in a pre-Blomkamp reality I think. It basically suggested that, since the majority of the public wanted hicks and newt to survive (but they didn't), then let's give the readers the opportunity to have the next best thing. Awful. Just give hicks and newt a chance or let them be dead.
This is the first Alien book I've ever "read", and now I really want more. Anyone have any suggestions?
EDIT: Yesterday I decided to boot up Isolation just to look around in the shuttle from Last Survivor. Out of the Shadows makes a big deal about there only being one cryo pod in the shuttle. However, there are two! I just remember standing there in the game, looking back and forth, and just laughing at the realization.
I found that there were a lot of flashbacks that Ripley was having about Amanda that did not get included the same way they were in the book, but in the audio-drama, it was done even better. It was due to the different medium that's all. The book is an excellent Alien story that I am sure you will enjoy.
Wow! I'm in agreement with Perfect-Organism. This has been one of my top favorite alien experiences, along with alien isolation and the movies themselves!
Now I have to ask. I own the book, but haven't read it yet. How much different is the book compared to this audio drama? More detailed, less detailed? Did they make any huge storyline changes for better or worse? Or maybe storyline additions? Any thoughts of interest comparing this audio drama to the book?
I'm more highly motivated to read the book now. I loved the story. I even enjoyed how they wrapped it all up. This may even replace "Aliens: Rogue" as my favorite book in the EU. I feel like if they had strayed away from Ripley, it would have been a great story too, but I honestly didn't mind so much that ripley was in this story (didn't make it better or worse to me). But again, I still have to finish reading my current book, "ringworld" (which is also really good, for you sci fi junkies out there; if you like halo, "ringworld" was one of the inpirations for that series).
PS. For my second free audiobook, I did end up choosing "predator: incursion."
I disagree with you there. I think the excitement of the first drama and the fact that it sounds so perfect probably does elevate our opinions of it but if it was a wank story, we'd be complaining. The original novel was a solid foundation for this.
It was a weird one. She eventually starts saying it Nostromo though.
The dog-aliens are a new species introduced in Out of the Shadows. They come up again in The Rage Wars. The miners find the eggs in the ship first. They'd have more Queens to establish more hives further away.
It's used in the very first Aliens story. Newt/Billie's memories of Hadley's Hope/Rim are suppressed. I think it's pretty well explained and put across in this vote.
She's barely mentioned in the drama. The novelization uses Amanda to better build into Ripley's desire to have her memory wiped. I think that was really important to getting the torment to that bad that Ripley would want that.
The second book loosely follows on from this one. It's set on the same planet but post-Resurrection and features a relation of Ripley. That was more combat based and I felt very much like the older EU novels.
I wouldn't say I had a downer on the novel. I enjoyed the novel. I think the novelty of this is playing on us quite a lot at the minute so I wouldn't really want to say yet.
But on another note, I'm 7 chapters down 3 to go! Still loving this. I swear, sometimes I forget that's NOT sigorney! Aliens sound horrifying! So far, I mostly like the story. One of my favorites in the EU, and I'm not too turned off by ripley's inclusion yet (we'll see if I feel the same when it ends and the inevitable happens to re-set the stage for aliens to take place). I also love the references to alien isolation (which are new, right? Not originally in the written book?).
But so far, I'm in agreement with a lot of the reviews I've seen! Masterfully done with a couple minor issues/annoyances (like "nostroma").
Fair enough there, whatever works for someone. I just have a laptop for all my internetting/computing needs. The only thing my phone can do is text & make phone calls, there's not even an option for internet that's how old it is haha I have a PS3 but I very rarely ever do any online gaming, most of the games I play are 1 player games anyway & I'm not interested in doing death match type stuff with others, I get bored of it really fast. That being said, I do lose out on cool stuff like this for not having any recent tech. I feel like I'm being punished for not wanting to conform with everyone else
I setup the audible stuff through my phone. I intend to cancel shortly after I listen to my full audiobook(s). And I'm impressed enough with what I've heard so far that I intend to purchase the audiobook through iOS's bookstore too (I want it permenantly without monthly subscriptions, and I want them to make enough money to continue with these audio dramas!)
Reading both your reviews, you seem to have a downer on the original novel so if you had the choice between a long novel and a condensed audio drama, would you always opt for the audio?
Yea the site is set up kind of weird. I honestly couldn't even find a proper place to cancel the subscription, it was more or less just taking off my credit card number from the billing address so ensure I wasn't going to be charged at the end of the month but I couldn't find where you actually cancel the subscription. Out of the Shadows WAS in my library as I did use my 1 credit to get it but yea, now that I took my credit card # off, they say there's a problem with my billing & Out of the Shadows is no longer in my library. Bit of a pain in the ass honestly playing with all of this. Like I said though, no ones fault but my own for not staying in touch with tech. I just don't have much of an interest in any of the tech stuff people use today so I never bothered going the route of iPhone or Pad & still don't really have an interest to do so. I'll eventually find some other way to be able to listen to it I suppose.